Be Safe with a Fire Safe: Protect your valuable possessions

Be Fire Safe with a Fire Safe

If your house caught fire, would your important documents be safe?

We should be proactive about protecting critical information in case of a fire. Although lots of us have gone digital when it comes to storage of personal information, certain items still need to come in hard copies. And some things, other than papers, also need to be stored in a safe place.

Ask yourself what you need easy access to when you’re in an emergency fire crisis? l Original birth certificate l Wills l Business documents l Property deeds l National Insurance details l Insurance documents l Car documents l Other original documents l Spare keys for house and car l Passports l Heirloom jewellery l Emergency cash l Irreplaceable photos (or just the negatives) l Back-up of family computers’ hard disks l A file containing information: emergency numbers of insurance companies, bank, lawyer, family members, medical prescriptions,

GP, vet details, etc. A fire safe is a box designed to protect valuables from heat damage and smoke caused by fire. The level of protection is determined by the type of fire safe and its fire rating. Not all fire safe boxes are alike. Standard fireproof safes protect valuables against intense heat and smoke damage for periods of up to 120 minutes. But it depends on what you want to store. The fire test standards require that the critical maximum temperature of the following media cannot be exceeded: Digital media: 120°C; Computer data: 52°C because electronic media melts at a lower temperature than paper combusts. A fire safe rated suitable for paper documents is NOT suitable for digital media.

Most homes don’t have a fire safe… but can you afford to be without one? Tom Hancock

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